Thursday, November 15, 2012

America Recycles Day Recap!

America dedicates every November 15th to spread awareness about recycling and to encourage people to recycle! American Recycles Day is a program through Keep American Beautiful, and it started in 1997.

To celebrate this year, myself and Mike; our Marketing Intern, tabled in Terrace Dining Hall during the lunch hour to talk about what American Recycles Day is all about and to test our IC diners to see how much they really knew about recycling! Along with a bulletin board of recycling facts, we also had a fun wheel of recycling facts! For a chance to win an awesome sustainable prize, students had to spin the win and correctly answer a fact about recycling.

Recycling Facts Wheel!!

Think you are a recycling expert? See if you can correctly answer the following questions below:*(Answers given at the end of the blog)

1. The energy saved from recycling ONE aluminum can, can run a
TV for how many hours?

2. Are the wrappers of Hershey kisses recyclable?

3. Every hour, how many plastic bottles do Americans use?

4. How many days does it take for a recycled aluminum can to be
made into a new can?

5. Each year in the United States, how many trees worth of
paper are thrown away?

6. What is single stream recycling, and do we have it in
Tompkins County?

7. Are shopping bags recyclable?

8. Can a plastic bottle be recycled and made into fleece for
clothing?

9. True or false: 80% of what Americans throw away is
recyclable, and the US recycling rate is only 20%

10. How many pounds of carbon dioxide can be saved from the air
from recycling one ton of paper (= 17 trees)?

We also had a sign up sheet from an event we will be holding in the Spring, from February 3rd to March 30th called Recyclemania! During this month long event, there will be a bunch of educational activities on campus to promote recycling! One of the events we will be having is the Recycling Photo Contest! During the month of Recyclemania, send in a picture of yourself recycling (you can be using the CRT stations or your recycling bin where you live) to our email, ecodining@ithaca.edu to be entered to win an awesome sustainable prize at the end of Recyclemania! All throughout the event we will be posting your recycling pictures on our Facebook page to give you kudos for your recycling efforts! It's super easy, promotes recycling and you could win a prize, what's not to like!

Also, keep a look out for recycling signs on vending machines and drink coolers at locations, such a Grab and Go, as a reminder to recycle all cans and bottles. And as always, look for our awesome CRT (Compost, Recycle, Trash) signs.